That was one of the problems for the ill-fated Korean Grand Prix, which has been dropped from the Formula One World Championship calendar after just four races. The Grand Prix had been included on a provisional schedule for 2014, but the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile said Wednesday that the Korean race is out, along with New Jersey and Mexico.

The FIA’s statement said New Jersey organizers hope their race will feature in 2015, but it made no further mention of Korean prospects, signaling the end of a troubled road for the Korean International Circuit in Yeongam.

The location was always a problem. From Seoul, it’s a three-hour train ride to Mokpo and then another hour by bus or car to the track, so race attendance was poor. For the spectators that bothered to make the trip, the only accommodation options were generally “love hotels,” whose charges include hourly and overnight rates.

“If you have a full house it makes the atmosphere and makes it a special race. This place doesn’t have that because no one comes to watch it,” Reuters quoted British driver Jenson Button as saying ahead of this year’s race on Oct. 6, which was won by world champion Sebastian Vettel.

After the latest Korean Grand Prix, the race promoter Park Won-hwa said the event had a 50-50 chance of a survival, according to reports. If a promoter says an event is 50-50, it is generally doomed.

The Korean Grand Prix wasn’t profitable. Operating losses amounted to 172.9 billion won ($163 million) in its first three years, from 2010 to 2012, according to local media reports. The organizers of the race wanted to renegotiate terms of their contract, which ran from 2010 to 2016, in an effort to cut costs. Their efforts failed.

The organizers couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

The Korean Grand Prix, one of only five counter-clockwise circuits on the 2013 calendar, isn’t the only new Asian venue to be sidelined. The Indian Grand Prix, staged at the Buddh International Circuit to the east of New Delhi every October since 2011, isn’t on the 2014 calendar. Organizers and F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone have said the race will return in March 2015, but not everyone is convinced.

The FIA said Wednesday that two new races — in Austria and Russia on June 22 and Oct. 12 — will be added to the 2014 calendar, leaving a total of 19. The season begins with the Australian Grand Prix on March 16 and ends in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 23, the FIA said.